Olive intros MELODY No2, OPUS No4 home audio solutions

Being that music lovers everywhere are scrambling to find bona fide replacements to their suddenly antiquated compact disc players, it follows logic for Olive Media to give us one more option besides the OPUS Nº5. The OPUS Nº4 is a high-end digital music server which features between 320GB and 1TB of internal storage space, an integrated CD burner, 4.3-inch 480 x 272 touchscreen, gigabit Ethernet / 802.11g WiFi, a USB 2.0 port, a slew of audio outputs and native support for WAV, FLAC and MP3 files. As for the iPod-friendly MELODY Nº2 companion, it enables various rooms of the home to access tunes stored on the OPUS Nº4 as well as songs on any networked Mac, PC or NAS drive. If you couldn't guess, both units are aimed squarely at the affluent sect, which probably explains the $1,499 to $1,799 (OPUS Nº4) / $599 (MELODY Nº2) price tags. Check the gallery on Engadget HD.

[Via Macworld]

[Aguiluz @ Apr 2nd 2008 5:41PM]

Looks like a fat version of my router I have in my basement....






P.S: Dear Engadget, please return the Magenta background. -Aguiluz

[Leo @ Apr 3rd 2008 6:47AM]

+1 pretty please return the background. It makes us feel like there are actually some women on the internetz. Plus it pisses off a corp so bonus points there.

[Dankoozy @ Apr 2nd 2008 5:45PM]

Whats that slot for? floppy drive or a really big smartmedia card? maybe its for the not yet announced SuperSmartMediaPlus card that is going to kick those evil, DRM infested SD cards into oblivion

[letstakeawalk @ Apr 2nd 2008 5:52PM]

That slot would likely be the Panasonic CD-R/RW drive. Although I'm still very happy with my Yamaha SACD transport - apples and oranges...

[chris @ Apr 2nd 2008 6:13PM]

I can't think of why anyone would buy this. Am I missing something obvious or is this just a glorified hard drive with a wireless USB adapter stuck in its derier. It's about as extortionate as Eliot Spitzer's love interest.

[Jeff @ Apr 2nd 2008 6:22PM]

whatever! you electronic fools thats all I have to say. Stupid blu-ray or hd dvd. I'm sick of keeping up with the jones'.. I did this before and went bankrupt trying to keep up with technology. I can't stand this crap anymore the whole world is addicted in buying the same thing over and over just because it's new. I'm not buying a widescreen tv or a blu-ray disc player because I have about 200 dvds at home and the quality of dvd is amazing compared to what I grew up with on VHS. I think that there was a phenomenal jump in quality from VHS to DVD. Now people are being forced to buy a new format of movie when it's just on the same idea as dvd. Like how clear do you want it. Some older movies look horrible when their cleaned up like the 50 million versions of Halloween they brought out,how many times do we have to replace our movie collections. I'm content with DVD format. And as far as the new tv's go I think they look like crap the tv can't even keep up with the image and it looks fuzzy when there's an action sequence. So I'm going to hold out for a memory stick so I can just transfer all my favorite titles to it. The hell with buying movie collections over and over again. Go ahead and try and keep up to new technology and see how fast your paycheck goes away to something you don't need.

[Dankoozy @ Apr 2nd 2008 6:37PM]

agreed. i only buy stuff after its gone down in price a good bit. can't stand this crap

especially with companies like Intel around who have 30+ years of tech stocked up and are slowly releasing slower, crippled versions of it as "filler technology". Moores law is merely a profit-maximising scam, nothing magic about it. Fuck it i'm sure those bastards have already have all the processors for 2012 stored in a dark cellar some place ready to be shipped to uninformed 15 year old gaming yuppies around the world all excited about their "new" processor and 15800GTFO card.

[ScooterDe @ Apr 2nd 2008 7:31PM]

like they say, things rob your time (you work to pay them off), but don't dismiss widescreen LCDs so quickly: they are getting good and cheap. I switched 12 months ago and we love the big screen, watching digital downloads and DVDs (only rarely TV). I'm not stuck on HD, but we appreciate the size and slim depth.

[chris @ Apr 2nd 2008 7:37PM]

Jeff and Dankoozy, you took the words out of my mouth - there's too much minuscule upgrading of products, and yes it is a scam - to get us folk upgrading as much as possible so product lifecycles shrink to maximize profits. Product commodotization (deliberate shortening of product lifecycles) is something that's created today's throw away society. If you do need to upgrade - buy pre-owned if possible and trade in your last model - that way you'll save thousands a year and be green too.

further reading on shortening product lifecyles http://www.trade2save.com/blog/2008/03/19/is-greenpeace

[tojfs7931 @ Apr 2nd 2008 7:53PM]

Im sorry but that thing is hideously ugly.

[Daniel Rutter @ Apr 3rd 2008 1:24AM]

> both units are aimed squarely at the affluent sect

Scientology?

[Reginald P. Pepperworth III @ Apr 3rd 2008 3:27AM]

I could not have said it bettah, Daniel. Mr. Murphy, we aah usually refehhed to as the affluent _set_.

[hypereric @ Apr 3rd 2008 7:47AM]

I could've guess the prices would be astronomical merely by by the cursive writing on the lower right hand corner. It's almost a standard in AV gear: no cursive writing = lower pricing, cursive writing = astronomically over-priced gear.

[Eugene @ Apr 3rd 2008 9:11AM]

"Flac support" AND "iPod friendly" sounds like oxymoron

[Steve Jones @ Apr 4th 2008 3:06PM]

I still like my vinyl thank you very much! 1210's and my Ortofon's, i'm set!